What Comes After Japan

Building a Polar Training Lab

Since Last Time

I’ve been a little quiet.

Finished Japan, flew to Panama almost immediately, and thought I might stitch up the skipped sections. Darien Gap, Sudan, east Iran. Clean up the story. Finish it properly you know.

I got to Panama City, sat there for a few days, looked into the Darien, and left.

I’ve put myself in bad spots before and felt clear about it. This one did not feel clear. First of all it’s illegal. Then there’s cartels, coyotes, everybody in Panama City telling you some version of “don’t be dumb.” Probably part of it was fear. Part of it was coming off a year of pushing and not having it in me to throw myself right back into the fire. Either way I bailed and flew back to Minnesota.

So now I’m still trying to raise the stakes but with the safer 4th option. Now it’s Antarctica.

And Antarctica is forcing me into a completely different zone.

Up to now, most of this project has been pretty scrappy. Bike, bags, patch kit, phone, passport, send it. If something breaks, fix it (kinda) and keep movin’. If conditions are rough, deal with it. If I need to sleep, find a drainpipe or a field or a budget hotel and keep going.

Antarctica does not work like that.

There are no towns. No hot meal ten miles away. No random guesthouse for when you are cooked. No margin for error. The people I’ve talked to made that pretty clear. The rough number I got for logistics was around $90k, and that is before you even get into the question of whether riding a loaded bike on Antarctic snow is a dumb idea in the first place.

So now the project looks less like “go ride somewhere” and more like “build a test facility and start finding out what breaks.”

That’s the pivot.

I bought a truck because now I need to haul material instead of just hauling myself. I’m looking for somewhere in or around Minneapolis where I can drop a container for a month and work on it without getting all my tools stolen. Fenced yard, industrial area, maybe an old warehouse. Somewhere I can actually get work done instead of being told no by six layers of zoning and noise ordinances.

The idea is to buy a shipping container and turn it into a cold chamber. Not a polished lab. More like a rough prototype that lets me test systems in public.

• Industrial size fans

• Refrigeration Unit

• Insulation

• Bike rollers

• Lighting

• Cameras

A place to sit in the dark and see what happens when your body and gear are in an environment closer to the real thing.

Basically if Antarctica is the final test, I need a place to fail early.

And it’s got me excited.

Because now there is an actual build in front of me. Steel, insulation, power, airflow, condensation, batteries, gloves, sleep systems, what freezes first, what stops working. Whether a bike setup can survive repeated cold cycles. Or whether the lube freezes and plastic bits snap off.

There’s also the dirty part, which is money.

Japan was still scrappy enough to brute force it with savings, Substack, some help from you guys, and a general willingness to live like a bum. Antarctica is different. That means sponsors. So I found a manager. He’ll take 20% but it’s money well spent if we can lock a few good partners. He’s pitching outdoor brands. Making the case that this is real, not just some guy with a nicotine problem and a silly idea.

I think that’s what this phase is now.

Not simply planning an expedition. Building the machinery around the expedition. Truck, container, acreage, fans, cash, systems, reps.

A lot less scroll-stopping than “biking across continents.”

Also probably more real.

Route Recap

Biking to Japan is done. The rest of the map is done. The skipped edges are still there:

• Darien Gap

• Sudan

• East Iran

I don’t love it. But right now the bigger picture is Antarctica.

What’s Next

Today’s job is finding a place to put the container and starting the conversion.

That means:

• Finding a yard or lot around Minneapolis where I can park it and work

• Buying the container

• Figuring out power

• Figuring out how to create usable cold and airflow

• Building a two-chamber setup where I can test gear and not accidentally kill myself

I want the space to be harsh enough to teach me something useful. If it works, I’ll use it to test gear, sleep systems, clothing, cameras, charging, rollers, food, and whether my body can tolerate repeated exposure.

If it doesn’t work, that’s useful too.

Either way, this is the project now.

Gear Update

Current new piece of gear is sexy: 1998 Dodge Dakota Sport - 3.6L V6, 5 speed manual. $1,600 bones.

I did not finish Japan and think, you know what would make this story better, a pickup. But here we are.

The bike is still the core object, but Antarctica is going to require way more infrastructure around it than anything I’ve done before. The truck is basically step one in accepting that the next thing is a build.

Reflection / What I’ve learned

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of people like the clean version of a project. Man has idea, man sends it, man posts cool videos.

This part is less clean.

This is the part where the idea is more about data. Theories tested in reality.

• How cold

• How much power

• How much money

• Where do you park the thing

• Who lets you do it

• What breaks

• What’s workable

Thanks

Appreciate you sticking around while the project pivots.

Biking to Japan was a simple story. Now it’s something different. More materials. More dead ends. Hit the phones. Then more testing. Less traveling. Less cultural learnings. Less obvious motion. But it feels like real work. And I’ll keep showing up as it happens.

Have a lovely week,

Ian